Paramedics take 4 hours to respond to accident in Surrey

The Surrey Fire Service is demanding answersafter firefighters were left to care for victims of a car crash for nearly four hours on Monday before paramedics arrived.

"They waited for the ambulance for approximately three hours and 50 minutes. That amount of time is excessive. If you put yourself in the patients' position, it would've been very uncomfortable," saysSurrey Fire Service assistant chief Chris Keon.

The accident happened at 160 Street and King George Boulevard, at approximately 11:50 a.m.on Sept. 26. Two people had possible back injuries, and firefighters stabilized them while waiting for ambulance crews to arrive.

But three times, an ambulance was called only to be diverted elsewhere. Paramedics eventually arrived on scene around 3:30 p.m.

"We have to do a very thorough review of this situation, what went wrong,"says Linda Lupini, vice presidentat B.C. Emergency Health Services. "It's a rare event."

"I was appalled when I heard it took this long, and I want to make sure we do a very thorough internalreview."

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Keon says even thoughMonday'sincident was rare,he has seen ambulances take longer to arrive on scene over the past few yearsfrom an average of five minutes to now approximately 20 minutes.

Lupinisays it's due to a change made in 2013, whereemergency calls were downgraded if they didn't involve critical incidents. However, she says changes should be made so that when ambulances are rerouted from a non-critical situation multiple times, it can be flagged.

"We need an escalation process where somebody is more aware of the timing and has conversations with first responders... can get someone to the scene faster, and we have to havea process so we can respond to these unusual situations."

Lupini says they've apologized to the couple involved in the accident.

With files from Kamil Karamali